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1 • Gnoppix (by InvisibleInk on 2025-12-01 01:40:33 GMT from United States)
It seems that Gnoppix has lost its marbles and has gone completely off the rails into certifiable madness...
2 • Gnoppix (by Arturo on 2025-12-01 01:52:08 GMT from Australia)
Sounds like AI may have written the README and contributed to other elements of the OS...
3 • Gnoppix Review (by Slappy McGee on 2025-12-01 01:59:18 GMT from United States)
I felt sad reading through that review. Such a thing hitting Linux users is not needed, to say the least. Hopefully new-to-Linux users will ignore that distro and NOT EVEN CLICK ON IT IN THE PAGE HIT RANKING LIST, let alone go to the Gnoppix website. We as Linux user should not promote such a thing.
I appreciate the heads up by this site and the reviewer, but that sort of attention here might (inadvertently) lend support to it. Hope not.
I agree with @1 and find @2 interesting.
4 • Point of Distros (by BigMike on 2025-12-01 02:19:08 GMT from United States)
I find no use in the vast majority of the "based on" distros. I.e. based on Ubuntu, based on Debian, based on Arch, based on FreeBSD. Why not just use Debian or Arch or FreeBSD? Each of those can do just about anything the derivatives can do.
I also like global projects. An often overlooked reason to choose the big ones like Debian, Arch, or FreeBSD over the derivatives is trust. Unless I know the developer of a one-man show distribution personally, I would be less inclined to trust that distro's package repository over the repositories of the big ones.
Lots of distros exist because they actually do innovative things not done by the big ones. Like NixOS or Whonix, or Qubes. Others have specialties for special interests. We could live without the hundreds of others that barely add anything to their parent distros.
5 • So many distros, so little time... (by Friar Tux on 2025-12-01 02:47:24 GMT from Canada)
@4 (Big Mike) For me, the reason I use a derivative of a derivative is because I found the Granddaddy didn't work. In my case Debian. It was a pain to install, couldn't/wouldn't connect to wifi, plus other issues - every time I tried it. I tried all the other Granddaddies too, and they were even worse than Debian. Next I tried Daddy - Ubuntu - same issues. So then, I tried the Grandson - Linux Mint/Cinnamon. BINGO! And not just bingo once, but every single time I reinstalled it, it worked perfectly each time. No after-install messing about. First time every time. So, yeah, I prefer derivatives to the originals.
6 • AI Sloppix (Gnoppix) & Solus 4.8 Release (by Jupiter on 2025-12-01 02:48:27 GMT from United States)
Think I and a vast majority of linux users do NOT want this AI Nonsense, and for those who do actually like to use AI whilst on linux, generally speaking they are just using it in their browser rather than on their distro. It doesn't really make since to have it integrated with the actual Desktop if your actually trying to give your users a good experience and not using it to sell their information or are trying to make your investors happy by making any product and throwing a big ol' "AI" sticker on it. (Microsoft)
I agree with @2, as Sloppix is quite literally AI Slop from the looks of things. Not really any good reasons for it to exist, and personally, I don't even think it should be here, as it just isn't really a proper distro in my eyes. Thats just my opinion of course, but still.
-----------------------
Glad to see Solus once again getting back on its feet, since 4.7 has been around for quite a while now. Should be interesting though since I'm pretty sure they actually have Discover as the new software store on the Budgie Spin, but regardless no more Python 2!
7 • Alternative distros (by Noddy from Aus. on 2025-12-01 03:14:10 GMT from Australia)
Recently I had to indulge in a new box. Just ordered a new cheap one online, never really specd it up for linux.
Anyway turned up with Windows 11, which lasted about 3 days then in with Debian.
Had a few small issues, the nvidia card would not work correctly and, when the nvidia drivers were loaded, I could no longer read qsync for the qnap nas backup.
After some searches online, I went back home to Linux Mint Mate. Everything worked.
Sometimes it takes a bit of searching to find what makes everything tick.
Have found a couple of alternatives, being Manjaro and MX linux XFCE.
8 • Re: So many distros, so little time (by BigMike on 2025-12-01 04:41:31 GMT from United States)
@4, FriarTux. I deduce that you haven't tried installing Debian in several years. It used to be that you had to supply Wifi drivers separately, download them with an ethernet cable, or use the unofficial non-free Debian image. For several years now, that is no longer necessary. Debian ships with non-free Wifi drivers by default.
Using the daddies/granddadies sometimes involves some gotchas where you have to learn something new, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It's educational, since one learns more about how Linux works. Getting over these bumps is easy with the major distros, since so many thousands of people are using them and any issue you run into will have been solved by someone else on the internet.
9 • @4 Variety of distros (by Keith S on 2025-12-01 05:11:35 GMT from United States)
Sounds like someone has been watching too many Titus Tech videos. I still don't have a reasonable answer from anyone for why they object to volunteers building distros and offering them for free. (Gnoppix possibly excluded though lol.) After 20 years of using free software, I really appreciate the effort teams and even "one-man" distros like AV Linux go to so that others can benefit from their efforts.
I don't use Debian because the result of the vast collective effort means it takes too much time to get it to look and act like I want it to. (Plus occasional uninteresting political drama unrelated to computing is sometimes a factor. But NixOS seems worse right now.) I don't use Arch because it's not really a distribution but rather a meta-distribution that I can use as a base to build what I want -- but others have already done the work for me, such as Endeavour and Cachy, and better than I could do it. I don't use FreeBSD because if I'm going to go to the effort to get a BSD to work as a daily driver, I'm going to do that with OpenBSD since it has much cleaner code and a simpler structure.
On the positive side, many "based on" distros work out of the box and have things that the majors don't without a lot of additional effort on my part. (Left out Fedora, OpenSuse, Void, and probably another couple of independent distros btw.) For example, MX Linux and antiX have tools that none of the others have readily available. Bodhi and antiX are fully functional and very much lighter than most, and Bodhi is very beautiful to look at and easy to use. Puppy is amazing and weird in a fun way and light too. There are lots of great distros.
But I guess some people would prefer a world where only three or four OSes existed, just like having now only three cell phone carriers and only three or four major grocery chains and far fewer small independent restaurants since the coof decimated small businesses. So I personally celebrate the smaller "based on" distros. I mean, the license for the code practically begs people to copy it and repurpose and remold it.
10 • Gnoppix sounds like a hoax (by does it really matter? on 2025-12-01 07:20:50 GMT from Italy)
All that said, how may everyone consider that a real Linux distro?
11 • Gnoppix Forum (by Rally on 2025-12-01 08:31:59 GMT from Thailand)
Even their forum is "full AI". If you click on the forum on their homepage, you are directed to a forumpage where at least of the last comments are in your mother language - regardless what language it is. You can try with a VPN, change your real IP address to a country of your choice and I am pretty sure you will see at least one comment on the top of the page in the language of the country your VPN uses.
12 • Gnoppix "AI Linux" (by Józef on 2025-12-01 10:48:42 GMT from Poland)
When I read the first few lines of the review, I thought it was probably just some random Debian/Ubuntu based distro with Alpaca preinstalled as a Flatpak.
(Alpaca being an open source frontend to all sorts of AI chat systems, including locally run ones if you instal the Ollama plugin - com.jeffser.Alpaca.Plugins.Ollama)
But it ended up being far worse than that, with its strange AI app requiring online sign in, the seeming lack of any kind of FOSS AI tooling, locally run LLMs, etc.
And then there's that weird readme file with its rants about random things, so yeah... it seems like TempleOS might have found its competitor.
13 • AI (by Josh Smith on 2025-12-01 11:00:39 GMT from Australia)
I think an OS forcing AI on users is not a good idea, but I could see there being value in installers having the option to install a local AI assistant should users want one. Some people do use them, although I'd imagine most would use a remote AI instead of a local one. They'd be especially useful for Linux distros with a steep learning curve like NixOS.
14 • More Gnoppix weirdness (by Józef on 2025-12-01 11:03:24 GMT from Poland)
When I just tried to visit the Gnoppix website from Poland, I got a message telling me that they are refusing access to EU IP addresses since they "lack the resources and legal infrastructure to comply with the complex mandates of several impending EU legislative acts".
They then provide this list:
-Product Liability Directive (PLD) / Software Liability (2026): We face unacceptable risk due to legal uncertainties regarding the "commercial activity" exemption for FOSS projects.
-Digital Services Act (DSA): The extensive moderation and compliance requirements exceed our volunteer capacity and resources.
-Proposed CSAM Detection Regulation (e.g., 'Chat Control'): Potential mandates for backdoors fundamentally conflict with our commitment to user security and End-to-End Encryption (E2EE).
-AI Act: Compliance conflicts with our commitment to free expression and our project's mission.
Since they're supposedly a Singapore based distro according to Distrowatch, the EU couldn't enforce its laws in a foreign country's jurisdiction anyway.
Even if it pulls an Ofcom and pretends it has achieved world domination by threatening foreign businesses or individuals, it is doomed to failure, as we have seen time and again when people/companies simply refuse to comply.
So, such measures are unnecessary, and needlessly burden the users.
15 • Debian Ubuntu and Mint (by Tim on 2025-12-01 11:09:18 GMT from United States)
I think at this point Mint counts as more than a derivative of a derivative. They add enough value into the entire ecosystem by making very different packaging decisions than Ubuntu.
From my perspective, being open minded about which branch of the Debian family I'm in has paid off. Bugs in Linux packages are very hardware dependent and kind of random. So at any given time there's Debian stable and sid, at least two Ubuntu LTS and an interim, and one or two Mints with different base packages. All of these forked from Debian sid at different times or have different update policies so they're all a new shot if the current computer isn't working right.
16 • "Derivative" distros might better match your use case (by Daniel on 2025-12-01 11:45:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
@4, @5
Until recently I had a similar experience to Friar Tux's, although with sound playback rather than wi-fi.
Running "vanilla" Debian and very close derivatives (e.g. MX Linux and Devuan) produced glitchy, stuttering sound playback which no amount of tinkering would fix. Ubuntu and Linux Mint (the mainstream Ubuntu-based version) both worked flawlessly on the same hardware but the problem recurred when I used LMDE 6. I have never had a similar problem with Arch on the same hardware, so the issue therefore lay somewhere in vanilla Debian.
I recently tried Debian 13 (in the form of MX Linux 25 and LMDE 7) and the problem has disappeared. I like MX and it now meets my requirements, which was not the case before.
Linux is about choice. I for one am pleased that "derivative" distros are available. If you are philosophically opposed to them, don't use them, but don't damn those who find them the ideal solution for their use cases.
17 • new additions to the database, distribution matters (by tomas on 2025-12-01 11:49:39 GMT from Czechia)
Recently there have been many new additions to the database.
I do not consider myself to be a distrohopper anymore, nevertheless when a new distribution or an update appears on Distrowatch, it may attract my attention, even to try it.
I am grateful to get this information.
I suppose that the new additions pass some tests before they are added to the database,
I would appreciate if the person who does the testing would supply a short visitor rating to see more info about the distribution.
Last week VailuxOS caught my attention, but after a short survey I have found it is not for me to try.
For two reasons - it is only in german and the proclaimed goal is IMHO missed.
Why?
If it should make transition from Windows seamless it should not mimick Windows 11 but Windows 10.
The majority of potential users coming from Windows would be those that do not like Windows 11 or mostly those with hardware not supporting it.
I am not a Linux guru, just an ordinary (hopefully a little bit advanced) user.
I prefer when the installation is easy (graphical or interactive text-based) with most applications out of the box, without much tinkering from the command line (as some visitors here insist).
In the beginning Linux Mint KDE used to be my daily driver, now I had to switch to Mate (both configured to my liking as ex Windows XP user).
If we would reject sons and grandsons of the great we would lose many good distributions, to name just one I put here Devuan, which is just Debian without systemd but much easier to install.
(This is not to start a heated debate on systemd, as an odrinary user I do not see the difference so do not mind if it is used or not as long as the system works.)
18 • Does the distribution really matter? (by Jake on 2025-12-01 12:02:26 GMT from United States)
1. Debian based. I learned on Debian and have no desire to lean another package manager and it's commands.
2. A traditional desktop with no bloat.
3. A user friendly knowledgeable forum.
4. A distro with enough backing in money and developers to not disappear overnight on me. I had that happen twice and didn't like it.
That actually leave me a lot of alternatives. I do agree with the authorf software is seldom the reason I use or reject a distro.
19 • AI (by Nisse on 2025-12-01 12:41:39 GMT from France)
I use AI regulary by opening a tab and loading a page in my browser.
Would like to have an OPTIONAL AI assistant with french speech recognition and being able talk to him and capable of using speech instead of keyboard to control my OS.
20 • distribution matters / inheritance (by tomas on 2025-12-01 12:46:06 GMT from Czechia)
In my distrohopping days I have tested and rejected some distributions that did not even make it for me to go deeper and use them for some time. Maybe a strange reason but the developer gave them the most fancy colors and animations to make them unusable.
Sometimes that is what decides.
I still have an old notebook with 32-bit processor. Searching for a good distro to use it I have found Q4OS with Trinity desktop. The most snappy one of those tested.
Recently Q4OS upgraded to version 6 only for x64_86 processors, because Debian dropped support for x86 processors. The same applies to all Debian based distributions (as e.g. LMDE).
This is called development and goes even further.
OpenSUSE Leap 16 will not run on x64_86_v1 processors, some distributions will not boot on non-UEFI PCs ...
Slowly but inevitably Linux follows in the wake of Microsoft.
21 • Choice (by Alan on 2025-12-01 12:48:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
In the 15 or so years I've been using Linux, the freedom to choose has been one of the most attractive attributes. My main pc runs MX Linux. My second pc runs Besgnulinux, a one man band Debian based distro. I'm typing this on a 7 year old Lenovo Thinkpad laptop with Ubuntu.
Mint, Gentoo, Antix, Mandriva ,the BSDs etc etc, it's been such an interesting journey. I dread to think where I'd be now if the only choice was windows.
22 • AI (by dragonmouth on 2025-12-01 12:53:39 GMT from United States)
As configured and used currently, AI is a data harvesting tool on steroids. Various AI companies and tech pundits promise users that AI will solve all their life's problems. It may, in some distant future. In the meantime, it is hoovering up all the data it can.
23 • @20 - Remaining 32-bit distros (by Uncle Slacky on 2025-12-01 14:02:15 GMT from France)
Apparently antiX will be releasing a 32-bit version based on Trixie, there is also Void which continues to offer a 32-bit version, as does Alpine (though these last two aren't based on Debian). Note that Debian 12 (Bookworm) will still be supported for another 2.5 years in any case: https://endoflife.date/debian
24 • AI - want / need / optional (by MikeG on 2025-12-01 14:30:55 GMT from United States)
Optional: The ability to install AI software - some users want it, some don't. The beauty of Linux is to keep it simple - therefore, offer installers for optional AI.
Want: Linux users want to run local models. Period. If we wanted to use AI that needs to call an API, we would subscribe and use windows.
Need: We need AI tools that utilize NPU's. There are like 3 Linux apps that use the NPU. WE NEED MORE.
25 • Good Stuff this week, starting with Jesse's "Gnoppix AI Linux" disassembly.. (by Az4x4 on 2025-12-01 15:00:28 GMT from United States)
Whoa!! What in the world are Gnoppix's 'designers' thinking? Anyone who 'buys into the sort of disjointed, nonsensical AI hype they've kludged together in their, 'Maybe we can't fool all of the people, but if we can fool enough people to make a buck or two on this AI scam we're running, let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes..' What #&%@@ kind of "Linux" distro is that?
One of the reasons that Linux exists, in the multi faceted form it does today, is to provide a free open-source OS 'escape route' that Windows refugees, among others, can use to effectively 'turn their backs' on all the 'AI data collection garbage' that MS and Big Tech in general plan to burden those who go on using their 'closed source' OS's with.
Those who fall for the Big Tech hype and decide to 'continue along the Yellow Brick Road' through the forest to Win 11 and beyond - where hopefully one day they'll get to meet 'the Wizard behind the curtain' who's been 'pulling the strings and calling the shots' all along - will one day realize that Linux has provided easy to utilize 'off ramps and warning signs pointing the way to the wide world of open-source Linux desktop freedom all along!
Desktop Linux isn't some poorly designed haphazard Windows AI wannabe like Jesse warned about. Desktop Linux is best represented by its pioneering mainstream distros, and by top tier 'follow in their footsteps' daughter distros that don't seek to 'reinvent the wheel', but polish and refine it in such a way that users new and old take to their desktop OS offerings with praise and genuine gratitude. It's among this 'common sense' freedom loving, open-source, back to basics OS group that I count myself!
26 • KDE X11, AI (by Robert on 2025-12-01 15:34:32 GMT from United States)
Regarding KDE dropping the X11 session, I think it's worth mentioning that this isn't planned until 2027. A lot of the reporting on this reads like this is an imminent change where those few users who still *need* X11 had better start making plans. While here a link to the post with a timeline was given - better than some other outlets I've seen - I think it would have been good to put that date in the post directly.
As for AI LLMs, I want nothing to do with them. This is one genie that should have been left in the bottle, but its too late to put it back now.
27 • Debian has evolved nicely (by Slappy McGee on 2025-12-01 16:31:30 GMT from United States)
@5 and @8 I've been running Debian (following a thankfully uneventful and step-by-step install process that went perfectly well) for several weeks now, and it's a joy in all senses of Linux Distro use.
What a departure from the old days, as noted by Friar Tux and noted by myself a time or three following my own efforts.
Debian now installs and operates just as many of our favorite derivatives do; no need to mess with one of those, as far as I can see. I'm using KDE Plasma and have tweaked this up to my likes, spending about 30 minutes to do so, and now it's one of those distros that (here comes the cliche) JUST WORKS. Repos and all.
28 • Gnoppix unavailable from EU (by Rodolfo on 2025-12-01 16:37:36 GMT from Italy)
To Our Community,
This notice addresses changes to our service access due to new EU regulations. As a non-commercial, volunteer-run Open-Source Software (FOSS) project, we lack the resources and legal infrastructure to comply with the complex mandates of several impending EU legislative acts:
Product Liability Directive (PLD) / Software Liability (2026): We face unacceptable risk due to legal uncertainties regarding the "commercial activity" exemption for FOSS projects.
Digital Services Act (DSA): The extensive moderation and compliance requirements exceed our volunteer capacity and resources.
Proposed CSAM Detection Regulation (e.g., 'Chat Control'): Potential mandates for backdoors fundamentally conflict with our commitment to user security and End-to-End Encryption (E2EE).
AI Act: Compliance conflicts with our commitment to free expression and our project's mission.
Action:
We have relocated our core services outside the EU jurisdiction. To fully safeguard our volunteers and ensure the continuity of our project, we are implementing an IP-level block to restrict all connections originating from EU member states. We sincerely regret the impact on our EU-based community but deem this protective measure essential.
29 • Does the distro really matter anymore? (by John Doe on 2025-12-01 17:14:07 GMT from Poland)
Yes, they do. The main desktop distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Devuan, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo) are better documented and better maintained. I don't use derivative distributions, but they are an inevitable part of open-source world. What I look for in a distribution is a wide range of software and the guarantee that I won't be forced to use rubbish-snaps, rubbish-flatpaks and rubbish-appimages.
30 • Gnoppix's declaration of unavailability from EU member states.. (by Az4x4 on 2025-12-01 17:46:41 GMT from United States)
I've never run Gnoppix, and don't intend to start now. At the same time I won't further 'bad mouth' the efforts that Gnoppix designers are putting into that project, misguided - as Jesse so pointedly points out - as they may be.
However, with Gnoppix deciding to "relocate (its) core services outside the EU's jurisdiction" (which makes sense from the project's disjointed 'AI' point of view), the end result can't help but be cutting Gnoppix even further off from the Core Open-Source Values that main stream Linux distros are built upon.
None of this will trouble the EU in the least, but will further marginalize Gnoppix to the distant 'sidelines' of desktop Linux - neither satisfying the occasional unaware user it snares, nor confidently appealing to the wider world in which we all live - which is the antithesis of the rock solid desktop OSs that main stream Linux OS projects offer their users, no matter where they're located.
31 • @ 14 • More Gnoppix weirdness (by Tutus Groan on 2025-12-01 18:26:38 GMT from New Zealand)
a quick "google" regards the EU vs overseas software vendors and service providers.
EU vs Microsoft: antitrust - latest one Microsoft changed behaviour rather than being fined.
EU vs Google: antitrust 2.93 billion Euro fine
EU vs Apple - DMA breach 500 million Euro fine.
seems that the EU is quite willing and able to prosecute "overseas" companies when it needs to.
32 • Linux, the open source agentic AI OS (by Don Joe on 2025-12-01 19:11:31 GMT from Bulgaria)
People are sick of Microsoft shoving AI crap down everyone's throats so they want to switch to Linux? How can we improve the Linux desktop experience for all these newbies? Let's start shoving AI crap into Linux.
Does the distribution really matter? Yes if Flatpak is too bloated. 1 GB to install a simple calculator. Not everyone has a million TB hard drive.
33 • Debian is not hard to install (by Alex on 2025-12-01 19:12:43 GMT from Poland)
Debian is not hard to install, all you need is where to find the live - install iso of a DE of your liking. https://www.debian.org/CD/live/
34 • Does the distribution really matter? (by Ed on 2025-12-01 20:20:44 GMT from Sweden)
Yes, it really does. I'm not always in agreement with Jesse but this time I second his opinion and perspective wholeheartedly. 👍
35 • Does the distribution really matter? (by AnyHowWho Cares on 2025-12-02 01:06:26 GMT from Australia)
I doubt the distro [hopping] matters much if you opt for Xfce GUI on install and don't really use a computer beyond 'core' activities (browser, email, office suite, pdf, media player, image edit & display and mundane accessories).
MX Linux 25 with Xfce 4.20 is going to "look old" & familiar, so you can discover quickly 'does this thing just work'? Ditto Linux Mint Xfce, Linux Lite (Xfce specific) minimal GUI eye-candy to digest, just does the OS distro work?
While I love playing with a nice GUI, a serious distro developer really needs the installed core apps and functions to be available and just work; and it's the same for a specialist distro like AV Linux. Bigger developer teams are not necessarily better... but perhaps you should be.
36 • Old Hardware (by AdrienM on 2025-12-02 03:35:36 GMT from United States)
@20 - yes, Q4OS is quite snappy on a trio of 1GB PIIIs circa 2000 I tested it on! (with spinning HDs no less) Puppy is also blazing fast, but since I'm donating these machines, that might be a bridge too weird for some.
@23 & @26 - good info from both, thank you!
I always disliked the look and feel of KDE, but was starting to warm up to it. Even if the timeline to drop X11 is 1–2 years away, I likely won't bother switching. I'm not interested in anything 'Wayland only'.
Eventually, some old machines simply won't be safe to use for browsing the 'modern' web, but e-mail should be fine. There's no reason they can't keep working as long as the electronics hold out.
I find 'old' hardware is an excellent use case for alternative distros. One might think that the mainstream base distros would work just fine, but that isn't always the case. Some boxes just don't like them, or the other way around. But distros that still make an effort to support old architectures, I find, tend to work out of the box or nearly so, and they do it quite well. Saving long-paid-for hardware from a landfill for use as more than a door stop isn't a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't hurt modernization efforts or progress on the 'latest thing'.
37 • Gnoppix Weirdness (by AdrienM on 2025-12-02 03:37:25 GMT from United States)
That review is way funnier than I expected - time waster averted! The irony is really something, though I think it is lost on the devs.
38 • EU clampdown @31 et al. (by Keith S on 2025-12-02 07:10:11 GMT from United States)
I wish all distros would respond to the oppressive EU laws sacrificing privacy for "safety" the same way Gnoppix has by locating all servers outside of Europe and blocking all IP addresses from Europe. Say what you will about their other statements, Gnoppix is correct on this score.
Interestingly enough, GrapheneOS has just announced that it is withdrawing from France because of their insistence on backdoors in their OS. I stopped using Telegram after France tricked Pavel Durov into landing there and then held him in custody until he altered Telegram to allow the French government to read all messages.
We know Microsoft and Google and Apple will comply or just pay a billion here and there to continue doing business in Europe, so the impact of a Linux boycott would probably be minimal, but the Linux world has something of a history of symbolic protests. In some ways, Linux has become an extended symbolic boycott of Windows. As Theo DeRaadt once said, "Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft. We do what we do because we love Unix."
39 • Calligra Office suite (by keithpeter on 2025-12-02 10:22:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
This week's Jessie Smith review is one for the ages. I enjoyed reading it although it is a rather sad turn for the project. One sentence caught my eye a little;
"For some reason KDE-focused projects (such as Kubuntu, KDE Linux, and now Gnoppix) rarely include the KDE web browser or office suite."
Does anyone out there actually use Calligra Words to do shortish documents? Ones that include a mathematical formula or two and perhaps a simple diagram along with text? Periodically I try the version 3.x Calligra included with Slackware (still on Plasma 5.x) and end up scratching my head and going back to LibreOffice.
40 • I tried Calligra (by Flavianoep on 2025-12-02 11:49:01 GMT from Brazil)
@39
Once I started to write a book on Calligra Words out of love to KDE. Turns out I didn't have love enough.
41 • Calligra Word (by Zork on 2025-12-02 14:36:32 GMT from Poland)
@39
@40
"Does anyone out there actually use Calligra Words to do shortish documents?"
I use Calligra Word for only-text documents. Calligra Word lags far behind LibreOffice: I have difficulty inserting images, and the fonts used in Calligra Word are incorrectly recognised when opening the document in LibreOffice.
42 • Calligra (by keithpeter on 2025-12-02 18:11:54 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks to Flavianoep (40) and Zork (41) for replies. Yes, I'm finding inserting any objects like formulas or pictures confusing. Glad it wasn't just me. I shall cut my losses and carry on installing Libreoffice. Apologies for going a bit off-topic as well.
Some of the Calligra components are quite nice, the one that does diagrams (I'm not on my KDE computer at present) for instance.
43 • Distro Matters (by rhtoras on 2025-12-02 20:35:34 GMT from Greece)
yes the distro matters even if we are on the same side
ok systemD distros are all the same so there it does not matter that much
but when nosystemD it matters
musl vs glibc
runit vs dinit
busybox or not
gnu vs non gnu
and so many choices out of the box
i use mainly void because it offers the options
but i love projects like noir linux or sabotage or even krak3n linux
44 • One system does not satisfy everyone! (by Brian Masinick on 2025-12-02 20:55:13 GMT from United States)
Just in case it has been forgotten, the reason ALL of this alternative (mostly free) software was started in the first place was that the alternative(s) did not meet everyone's needs.
I remember my very first job, and I was thrust into the enterprise world of using IBM mainframe hardware and software. It was a change from what I used as an undergraduate student because we had a UNIVAC mainframe on our campus.
A lot of people had negative impressions of big blue and what they did. What a wonder when an unknown (at that time) company called Microsoft came up with MS/DOS and the notion of a personal computer! Even IBM got on board and in the early eighties it was the big thing! Not quite a decade later, Microsoft added its own word processor, spreadsheet, and more, coming up with the first Microsoft Office. What a revelation! From that time forward, anyone who could afford one picked up their first home computer.
It wasn't long thereafter, though, that such things were considered too expensive. Once the next decade arrived, we know what happened: some people started experimenting with the UNIX Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) to form, one, then two, then three (and later more) different FREE creations of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
About the same time, a European engineer bought a computer, but couldn't afford to pay even more for an operating system (and was NOT interested in Microsoft), so something he called Linux appeared.
Fast forward a few more decades and we have more variations of Linux than we can test, know, or remember. One common factor still exists: at least a few people are constantly looking for something a bit different. Sometimes it's just a different set of wallpaper images and unique appearance; sometimes it's a different window manager, a new desktop environment; whatever it may be, people want choices and alternatives, so there are more choices and alternatives that even enthusiasts have difficulty knowing about all of them.
Is this "bad" or "good"? My simple response is that if it's good for a few people, then that's good enough.
I've personally had a really rough time whenever I try out Manjaro Linux. Does that make it horrible? Not necessarily, but it sure does not work well for me personally. Replace Manjaro Linux with some other distribution and perhaps that is your story. My intent is NOT to bash Manjaro; for whatever reason, it just hasn't worked out for me. Endeavour OS and Cachy OS work great for me, so I have two very useful Arch alternatives that get the job done; same in the Debian space; I have a few there; same in the Slackware space. I haven't been doing the Fedora space recently, but that has worked fine in the past, same with openSUSE; the point of this essay is that it's valuable to offer so many varieties of distributions, each to meet anywhere from the needs of a handful of people to the needs of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of users. That's MORE than enough to justify the dizzy number of alternatives available today!
45 • Alleged EU clampdown (by Jan on 2025-12-02 23:58:43 GMT from Sweden)
@38
> I wish all distros would respond to the oppressive EU laws sacrificing privacy for "safety" the same way Gnoppix has by locating all servers outside of Europe and blocking all IP addresses from Europe.
This directive is seemingly not going to be passed after all, fortunately. Germany, for example, is against it.
> until he altered Telegram to allow the French government to read all messages.
Well, he allowed the Russian government to do the same in 2021 or before that, you could stop using this app much earlier.
46 • Wayland Known-Issues (vs X11, KDE) (by Alice on 2025-12-03 02:01:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Debian KDE X11 user for many years.
I would probably be considered a Linux "advanced" or "power-user."
The full-featured Session-Save/Session-Restore is important to me and the systems I support (family).
Last time I seriously tried Wayland, that was a massive omission that wasted my time, impacted my productivity.
Even recently, Debian 13 Trixie KDE auditions..
Not exactly edifying to find that, having overlooked the menu on the log-in page for changing the session to X11, the (now-default) Wayland session started afresh not merely with visual glitches (Pascal-era nvidia hardware ThinkPad) but also with some huge warning bubble about ibus(?) or whatever it was. Very poor first impression of Trixie defaults! (Not the only Trixie thing either, but that's a digression.)
So, is the full-featured Session-Restore truly now ready in Wayland?
Or even in the foreseeable future? (https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Wayland_Known_Significant_Issues)
Is it a simple personnel-hours issue, this widespread dropping of X11? Or just the current crop of bright-young-thing coders naively enamoured with New & Shiny and contemptuously dismissive of Old & Dull? Or, once again, is it actually indirectly another case of typically-malign Corporate agendas forcing this Wayland hegemony against Community interests?
As the wise-man once said: "not all Change is actually Progress.."
47 • More Gnoppix weirdness (by Kazlu on 2025-12-03 10:32:19 GMT from France)
@14 (Józef)
"When I just tried to visit the Gnoppix website from Poland, I got a message telling me that they are refusing access to EU IP addresses since they "lack the resources and legal infrastructure to comply with the complex mandates of several impending EU legislative acts". "
Wooooow huge red flag!! "The law is too restrictive so we won't bother respecting it" sends a great signal... At least they hold their stand and do not publish in the EU!
48 • Europe prosecuting overseas (by Kazlu on 2025-12-03 10:33:13 GMT from France)
@31 (Tutus Groan)
"seems that the EU is quite willing and able to prosecute "overseas" companies when it needs to. "
Yes, because these companies do business in the EU, therefore have to respect EU's law. Gnoppix is blocking EU's users, so is not doing business in the EU (or trying not to...).
49 • 32-bit distro (by Kazlu on 2025-12-03 11:44:21 GMT from France)
@20 (tomas)
"I still have an old notebook with 32-bit processor."
So do I. For now, I rely on MX Linux based on Debian oldstable, which should still last a while (through oldoldstable status). When the Debian train has gone, my next candidate will be Salix (Slackware based). I have used it with satisfaction in the past, but that was some years ago... Mayyyyybe Mageia if they keep supporting 32-bit? Not sure, last time I tried it, it was a bit sluggish and my netbook is terrible... SliTaz?
@23 Uncle Slacky suggested Void, it supports Nix so that could work.
50 • Does the distribution really matter. (by josh on 2025-12-03 12:09:51 GMT from Norway)
My short answer would be yes.
Recent events - upgraded debian bookworm to trixie, as I wanted to see if trixie would have the same problem - slow and delayed startup - it still does. No matter what I do such as using 'systemd-analyze' blame and disabling startup sevice the situation remains - personally I suspect wayland.
I installed xubuntu to see the difference, and there is a difference - quicker, less delayed, startup,
Howver I would preferr to use debian simply because the flicker rate, or frequncy of the screen is better suited to my eyesight.
But what is best out of the distros I have tried, regarding the latter point is pclinuxos - go figure?
I have tried other distros such as rebornos (really bad flicker rate), slackware 15, salix 15 (not a bad flicker rate) among others.
So again yes the distro and the persons situation matters.
51 • Same Desktop (by John on 2025-12-03 18:21:16 GMT from Canada)
With Wayland on the horizon, it will get "worse". That day I dread because I use fvwm and there is nothing on Wayland that resembles fvwm. Never mind many of the cool little X utilities will stop working, like xeyes.
What is happening in the Linux world is a big shame, soon it will be a mono-environment like Microsoft Windows.
52 • Choice of Venue (by AdrienM on 2025-12-03 18:35:57 GMT from United States)
@47 While Gnoppix clearly has issues per the review, I don't have a problem with them restricting IPs of a 'hostile' jurisdiction. I don't assume that every distribution has an 'army' of devs behind it, along with E-Suite team, legal team in-house or on-retainer, etc. Some of them are just a few dedicated enthusiasts, some just one person. Governments tend to overload businesses with red tape until it causes death, sometimes, literally. Some are so bad, they force people to choose between devoting time to 'compliance' or 'actually doing work'. It isn't about 'respecting' whatever dictates the EU wants to saddle people with, it is about a hard trade-off of availability and capability. And sure, maybe the Gnoppix team *does also* disagree with those 'laws' - that is their choice. Just like it is our choice as to which distro to use. The EU doesn't own the Gnoppix team or any business anywhere. No one is their slave. We are all free to figure out how to divide our limited time and resources between our core mission and their red tape, or simply avoid them all together.
53 • @51 John: (by dragonmouth on 2025-12-03 19:25:51 GMT from United States)
"What is happening in the Linux world is a big shame"
Welcome to the "New and Improved!"
54 • Works for me... (by John on 2025-12-04 13:26:59 GMT from Canada)
As a few have mentioned above, unfortunately we seem to need a lot of distros because what "works for me" does not work for others. Whether it's hardware related or some strange bug that happens in some people's workflow or whatever. There always seems to be some reason why one distro can't just be everyone's distro.
That being said - so far PikaOS has been great for me - cutting edge yet stable. Has handled everything I've thrown at it and just works perfectly. You might want to check it out?
55 • "What is happening in the Linux world is a big shame...". How timely... (by R. Cain on 2025-12-04 15:58:44 GMT from United States)
From the person who has been an outspoken---almost virulent---and highly objective user and defender of Linux for over 20 years:
"Mom, Windows 11 made me buy a Macbook!"
Updated: December 3, 2025 | Category: Hardware, MacOS
https://www.dedoimedo.com/
56 • Nombre de Distributions (by GrognuX on 2025-12-04 16:35:34 GMT from France)
The Linux problem resembles the sultan's problem. Having 400 pretty girls each with their own specialities, and not knowing which one to choose. Kind regards GrognuX
57 • 32-bit afaik not obsolete (by We all float down on 2025-12-04 17:15:14 GMT from Germany)
Slitaz rolling is 32/32 but there's also 64/32 (kernel/"apps") while Tinycore (glibc) adds 64/64 from which I can run Alpine 32-bit (musl) programs no problem using a chroot.
However most current distros are a disaster when (A) you use mobile Internet and pay let's say 1 cent for each MB, (B) they provide a multi-GB iso as "expert" install but not a static linked package manager, (C) use an uncommonly cruel initrd containing all Ethernet/Wifi drivers under the sun but you still have to download and manually install pppd+option.ko for LTE separately, or (D) forcefeed you graphics bloatware, elogind, llvm, *orifice* and other man-made horrors beyond human comprehension.
58 • @55 Dedo shift to Mac (by OneHue on 2025-12-04 22:20:56 GMT from Mali)
that’s hard! The creator of #! shifted to Mac many years ago… and now Dedoimedo. That means a lot: the year of Linux Desktop is over. Instead of improving things we are always trying to reinvent the wheel. And the new products are inferior to the older ones. That’s crazy. I’m not against systemd, Wayland or Rust per se ; but we need a vision for Linux on desktop. KDE did it with Plasma 5: they axed strigi, baloo, akonadi, etc in order to provide a strong Plasma experience. Unfortunately they added kuserfeedback. Gnome is still trying to improve Gnome 3 performance but it still not snappy as Windows 10. LibreOffice has reliability issues, people are moving to OnlyOffice. Printing is still an issue. Do you want to produce a song as a hobby ? You have to switch to a specific distribution for low latency kernel. Too much hassle. Even VMware doesn’t launch a Windows VM if you are using a NVIDIA GPU, you have to select “on-demand” profile. We need a distribution that can do all the things a desktop operating system has to do and in a reliable and comfortable way. Maybe FreeBSD will save us.
59 • @55 Deido, too!? Wow! (by Anon on 2025-12-05 01:16:02 GMT from United States)
I read Deido's article and it resonated with me on so many levels. Especially the parts about instability and inconsistency. I didn't know that I wasn't the only one who had that feeling that you can never relax in Linux because it is only a matter of time before somebody changes something that breaks your setup and/or workflow. Linux appears to care more about rewriting perfectly functioning software and forcing large, monolithic components on the users against their will. It doesn't appear to care about stability, reliability, or consistency. Sadly, Linux breaking my workflow and leading to hours and even days of lost productivity is not an isolated event. I've definitely started looking into other options. I might even end up on MacOS along with Deido, but with an older, refurbished machine. Windows will never touch my metal again, but Linux just isn't what the community promised it would be.
60 • @58 & @55 Dedoimedo's Mac (by Keith S on 2025-12-05 01:28:47 GMT from United States)
The thing I have always liked about Igor is that he aims for stability and usability, and calls it out when something falls short. He is right about peak Linux occurring in 2014. Though I have never really liked Ubuntu, and he worked for them, he is correct about the now defunct Ubuntu Store and desktop stability in general. He is also right about the loss of usability due to Wayland. It really is idiotic to basically replace a working system such as X11 with something entirely new (well, ok, it's like 15 years old now) that still doesn't work very well or consistently.
I still have a Windows 10 machine for one piece of hardware that only updates with Windows, but I plan to migrate that to a VM as soon as I get the time. As for the online banking and government portal problem, for me Android is a much better solution than a Mac, but only because I have given up trying to hide from Google. I gave up on GrapheneOS because it only runs on Pixels, not because I think Google has access through the hardware, but because every Pixel I've owned (five of them) has crapped out in two years or less because their batteries are so feeble. I have a couple of friends who have had catastrophic hardware failures with Pixels too. Motorola makes very stable and sturdy hardware -- not the fastest or bestest, but certainly usable and very affordable -- so that is my answer to the 5% -10% that I can't do on Linux.
61 • Oh my GAI... (by (ahem) on 2025-12-05 01:47:57 GMT from Australia)
dear Jesse, welcome to AI:
"unhinged
contradicting
disconnected with accepted reality
entirely divorced from [actuality]
bizarre
financial schemes to trick people
weird
I questioned what the developers think they were trying to accomplish
Wonderland-style
misinformation
surreal
odd
has such a negative impact
some complex joke
incorrect"
...yes sir, i couldn't have put it better ;)
- oh hang on, maybe i can:
how about 'dangerous' & 'a risk to humanity' :P
62 • AI (by curto on 2025-12-05 04:50:46 GMT from United States)
We have been warned about AI since the 80s-2000s:
wargames
terminator (all of them)
*add any i have missed
just sayin....
63 • MAC (by bubbatek on 2025-12-06 00:01:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
MAC is just a form of BSD running on locked-in hardware - with its share of complaints like any OS.
Number of Comments: 63
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| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
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| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
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| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
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